Hey there all you friends of Bogota Business English! CAN you attend our awesome Conversation Club tonight at Authors Bookstore on Calle 70 #5-23? We are going to talk about the weather and learn lots of new vocabulary for this topic that seems to be such an important part of life in Bogota! There will be native English speakers, music, candy and drink for everyone to enjoy! Tell your friends and family!

Do you understand the joke in the image? In English, “can” implies the ABILITY to do something while “may” implies that you are asking for permission! The difference is sometimes forgotten in spoken English, but it is important to remember. Below you will find more detailed information on the difference between these two words…

Welcome back, friends. Today we are going to learn 7 more very useful and common idiomatic expressions in English. Remember that these expressions are important if you want to gain true fluency in the language. These expressions also make English more fun and engaging for your audience.

On the first post about idiomatic expressions we compared each idiom with its Spanish counterpart. Today we are only going to give examples in English; see if you can figure out the meaning from the examples given for each idiomatic expression.

1. “To spill the beans”

“The secret was supposed to be kept between you and me! Why did you spill the beans and tell Juan?!”

Definition: To tell a secret. Do you remember another idiom that we learned in the last post that is similar to this one? You can also say “Let the cat out of the bag.”

2. “To give someone credit for something”

“Our boss is not friendly and is hard to work with, but you have to give him credit for growing the company.”

Definition: Acknowledge an achievement or contribution of a person.

3. “To do something behind someone’s back”

“Don’t trust Mariana; she seems friendly when you meet her, but she will say bad things about you to everyone behind your back.”

Definition: To interfere in people’s affairs without permission, usually in a dishonest or selfish way.

4. “To get the ball rolling”

“We can’t wait any longer to get this project started; let’s get the ball rolling on this one.”

Definition: To begin some activity.

5. “To bite off more than you can chew”

“When Juan told me that he wanted to do the whole project by himself, I knew that he had bit off more than he could chew.”

Definition: Trying to do something that is too difficult or time consuming to finish.

Expressing agreement and disagreement in English during a conversation is something that many Spanish-speakers have trouble with. Today we’re going to practice simple and effective ways to help you agree or disagree with others’ ideas and opinions.

You: “Really? SO DO I! They have great English teachers and wonderful customer service.”

OK friends, we have just used the formula (SO +AUXILIARY VERB + SUBJECT) to express that you also like studying English at BBE. This formula is great because it can be used with many different auxiliary verbs to express agreement in different context. Let’s look at some examples:

Me: “I would love to speak English fluently someday.”

You:”SO WOULD I. My boss would definitely pay me more money. Did you know that Juan is studying at BBE to improve his English?”

Me: “Yes, SO IS MARIANA. They say that’s the best way to learn English in Bogotá.”

Do you see how this formula can be used with many different auxiliary verbs to express agreement? Think of some other examples and write them down.

OK, to express our disagreement all we have to do is make a small change to the formula: (NEITHER + AUXILIARY VERB + SUBJECT)

Me: “I don’t think that we can learn English without a good teacher.”

You:”NEITHER DO I. We should try to find private English lessons in Bogota.”

Just like with the SO DO I formula, the NEITHER DO I formula can be changed to use different auxiliary verbs and subjects. Practice writing some sentences using both formulas. You can also watch this video from YouTube to see many more ways to use the formulas we’ve discussed today.